jrenich

So on the way home from the market tonight something very odd, yet hardly surprising for Mongolia, transpired. Marielle and I were walking up towards our building. Presently there is a massive ditch running up the length of our district because there are pipe repairs going on so there’s a big mountain of dirt and then a 12’ ditch all the way up the hill. As we were walking I was looking up the hill where they are running the pipes. Suddenly, I see a full grown sheep burst out from behind our building, sprint up the mountain of dirt, somehow leap the 12’ deep ditch and go racing into the kindergarden school yard, disappearing around back. Hmmm… there are millions of sheep in Mongolia, but in the middle of Erdenet it’s odd to see a lone, let alone free, sheep walking around town. Usually they’re being dragged up to the 5th or 6th floor of some apartment building to fill meat hungry bellies. I stopped to watch, sure that something great was about to happen, and sure enough, about 10 seconds later I heard a loud shout and see a Mongolian guy race out from the apartment building and go racing down the hill looking for his sheep. He’s screaming for help, waving his arms frantically to try to get his friends attention to come help him and then leaps (almost didn’t make it) the ditch and chases the sheep which has already disappeared behind the school. His friend follow suit and soon there are two guys scaling the school fence, racing through the courtyard and disappearing after the terrorized sheep. It was fantastic. I hope they caught there sheep, except that it’s about 99% sure the reason they were so keen on catching it was cause it was intended for tonight’s dinner plate. It was a great show though…